Gabrielle Union's Bad Boys TV Spin-Off Gets Pilot Order at NBC

NBC has issued a pilot order for the network's highly-anticipated Bad Boys TV Spinoff, which will star Gabrielle Union, reprising her role as Syd Burnett from the 2003 movie sequel Bad Boys II. The pilot order isn't terribly surprising, since NBC issued a pilot production commitment back in October when the project was first announced, but now it's definitely moving forward. Aside from Gabrielle Union, no other cast members were announced, but the network did release new plot details.

In 2003's Bad Boys II, Syd Burnett, the sister of Martin Lawrence's Marcus Burnett, was a DEA agent stationed in Miami, who had a secret affair with Marcus' partner, Mike Lowrey (Will Smith). In this series, Syd has left the DEA and started her life over in Los Angeles, working as an LAPD detective. She has been partnered with Nancy McKenna, a working mother who is envious of Syd's unattached lifestyle of freedom. This dynamic will certainly be similar to the original Bad Boys franchise, since Mike Lowrey was an eligible (and quite wealthy) bachelor while Marcus Burnett was a family man with a wife and kids.

Both of these detectives are at the top of their game, despite their wildly different lifestyles. Gabrielle Union will also serve as an executive producer on the series, alongside Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced both of the Bad Boys movies, Jonathan Littman, KristieAnne Reed, Jeff Gaspin, Jeff Morrone, Doug Belgrad. The show hails from Sony Pictures Television Studios, which will produce with Jerry Bruckheimer Television, Primary Wave Entertainment, and 2.0 Entertainment. The pilot script will be written by Brandon Sonnier and Brandon Margolis, who previously worked together on another as writers on another NBC series, The Blacklist.

The Bad Boys franchise kicked off in 1995 with the first movie, which marked the directorial debut of Michael Bay, following the action-packed exploits of Miami detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett, as they try to solve a murder and reclaim a cache of drugs that were stolen from the Miami Police Department. The R-rated movie earned $65.8 million domestic and $141.4 million worldwide, from just a $19 million production budget. In the eight years between Bad Boys and Bad Boys II, both Will Smith and Martin Lawrence became bona fide movie stars, with the 2003 sequel Bad Boys II, also directed by Michael Bay, taking in $138.6 million domestic and $273.3 million worldwide, from a $130 million budget. Sony has been trying to get a third movie off the ground for the past 15 years, with Jerry Bruckheimer revealing in September that they were working with another new writer.

There has been no indication thus far that Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, or any of the other cast members from the Bad Boys will reprise their roles, such as Joe Pantoliano as Captain Howard or Theresa Randle as Theresa Burnett. Regardless, this is just the latest movie franchise to the small screen. Netflix is preparing a Galaxy Quest TV series, which was revealed in November to be a sequel to the original movie, while E! is developing a TV series based on Jawbreaker, HBO is developing a Watchmen TV series, a Scanners TV series is being developed by Bron Studios and a TV series based on the Angelina Jolie movie Salt is in the works, just to name a few. Variety broke the news on this Bad Boys TV spin-off earlier today.